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1. When they first did the Bop-It parody, it seemed like a pretty stale reference at first. They don't need to do completely contemporary stuff, but it's been a long time since I've seen Bop-It, so it was kind of a weird reference. The scenes were executed really well overall, though. I liked how it tied into them crashing the car instead of being a complete throwaway.

2. The plot of the episode felt like a Scully Era plot in how over-the-top and wacky it became. I mean, come on. A parody of the Salem Witch Trials? It's almost as if the episode was self-aware of how ridiculous the premise was, when the judge threw the case out (which I liked). After that, I wasn't even sure what the point of the episode was. Was it that mobs are bad? Okay. But they've had so many angry mobs now, it's almost like the show is jerking off over them now.

Yeah, yeah, angry mobs. What else do you got?

3. The Homer subplot was handled pretty well. I was a bit nervous at the beginning because it was quickly becoming an, "Oh boy, look at those crazy redneck stereotypes!" cliche in the first act. I did see the conclusion with the water supply coming, though, due to all the water in the surgery room. Looking back it, how does that work anyway? Does washing hands make you blind too? It's not a huge deal, but kinda weird.

4. I really liked Cletus' comment about the hillbilly generalization regarding "Deliverance". It's too bad that Moe's over-the-top response kinda killed the moment. You know, you can play off, um, Moe's curiosity more subtly and we'll still get the joke. I swear we're not stupid. Just make Moe say "oh, okay" slightly disappointedly and frown a little as he departs. It's kinda depressing how much the writers think they have to dumb down the show so much for their audience. Way to make the show less smart.

5. Speaking of a smart reference, the "Sideways" parody was the best part of the episode. It was a neat flashy moment that some people would get and others (who hadn't seen the movie) would still enjoy looking at.

Completely agree with this, 4/10

"Look, Marge, you don't know what it's like. I'm the one out there every day putting his ass on the line. And i'm not out of order! You're out of order. The whole freaking system is out of order. You want the truth? You want the truth?! You can't handle the truth! Because when you reach over and put your hand into a pile of goo, that was your best friend's face, you'll know what to do! Forget it, Marge. It's Chinatown!" - Homer's rant.

I'm giving this a thumbs up, this post is funnier then a lot of the last few seasons

Personally, I liked a lot of things in this episode, but there was also a lot of weird stuff too. I preferred the Homer plot to the Lisa one, but overall it seemed to flow very nicely and no one really seemed out of character (Lisa is debatable, but I saw her as just an 8 year old that isn't sure what the hell is going on). One thing I picked up on in the first five minutes - I think this is the best music composition in years, I thought it was great. Overall though, fairly average and run of the mill.

Anyone think it would've made more logical sense that Neve Campbell's role would've originally been given to Fairuza Balk? In addition to her being in one of the four lead roles in The Craft, she is also a Wiccan in real life.

But then there is the possibility that Fairuza Balk declined the role and the producers decided Neve Campbell was their second choice.

I have a question about the Cassandra character , which one is it ? I don't know neve campbell voice enough to ear it.
I just noticed it can't be the one with the light skin because she says her name was Stacy Deathsatan aka Gwendoline Nightshadow (am i right there ? )

This was actually the first S21 episode I've watched. Reading the synopsis, it seemed the most captivating. However, I was extremely disappointed with it.

The thing is, this ain't unwatchable. But plot development was shambolic, and there seemed an over-reliance on visible gags, often graphic, cringeworthy ones at that. All of the following made for uncomfortable viewing:

The Bambi sequence
Wiggum and the fly
The possums
Moleman's self conducted operation,
Homer's stupidity at the end
All of the grenade scenes (wtf?!)

Even those aside, the episode, as is so often the case these days, ploughed along far too quickly and seemed to neglect the main idea. It took a full seven minutes to even catch a glimpse of the Wiccans. We found out virtually nothing about any of them, and Lisa actually wishing to join them in the first place just seemed a little...unusual.

Things then really did accelerate. Lisa's 'initiation', the festival, the police coming to the scene, the protests and the blindness - all in about 90 seconds! In about four minutes of viewing, Lisa had gone from being a little inquistive about the Wiccans to defending them in court! There seemed no development of the relationship between Lisa and the Wiccans. At the end, Lisa says something along the lines of "these past few weeks you guys made me feel cool!". Really? Weeks! WTF? And where precisely did they make you feel cool?

A wasted opportunity, because it was a smashing idea for an episode. But there was no character development, no plot development, and a large portion of the gags were a let-down, too.

On the plus side, the supply teacher's appearance was amusing, as was the other "Bonk it" family.

A nice couch scene set up a pretty funny first act with the deer being whacked, the Snowed Inn sign gag and the Bop It run, despite it going on too long all getting laughs from me.

The "Wiccapedia" joke was funny also but was the only highlight of the second act which was too heavily story based. The witches storyline was strange but I enjoyed the Crucible parodies and it was nice to see Blinky in a cameo appearance.

The ending was a nice resolution but the 4th act seemed very unnecessary.

I think this was a good and enjoyable episode. Both of the main plot (Homer and the hillbillies) and the subplot (Lisa and the wiccans) were nice and I like how they got linked together at the end (I believe it was some time since both the plots of an episode did that). There were some amusing and funny gags and jokes (like the Hell/Dell computer one) and I liked the movie references, like the Bambi parody and when Cletus referred to the infamous scene in Deliverence. I must admit that the ending with Homer disappearing in the water and then appearing through a hole in the ice in the end credits scene afterwards was a litte wierd.

Here’s another recycled and worn out storyline – Lisa meets her new heroes and decides to become one of them. The episode just didn’t offer anything spectacular. I thought the biggest highlight in the episode was actually some of the animation, especially in the nature.

The trip scenes at the beginning felt stale, but the episode picked up a notch from the moment Cletus and the hillbillies kicked in. The bluegrass bears were amusing, as well as Bart playing with grenades. There were some cruel jokes here and there, but I didn’t care as long as they made me laugh.

I wasn’t impressed by Wiccans at all. It didn’t seem natural for Lisa to decide to join them so quickly. The appearances of Moe and Kent Brockman were pointless and not even remotely funny.

The explanation at the end would work if Homer became blind after drinking the water with hillbilly moonshine, and the last scene with Homer being drown made me shudder. I was glad to see Blinky again, though.

It's started off like most other recent episodes have, little or no laughs. In fact, the only time I did laugh in the first act was the exploding snowmen. The "bonk it" went on too long, felt like filler to me. Would have preferred it to have been cut. I couldn't really tell what was the A-plot or the B-plot as they are both given equal amount of times.

The witchcraft which craft thing was clever, but not funny. Moe and Chief Wiggum weren't funny either. Bad lampooning of Wikipedia, just like Mypods. The hell-dell confusion was funny.
Blind scene not funny. Courtroom scriber thing was another good'un.

"Gummerment" = stupid. Reference of 9/11 and Hillbilly stuff also stupid. Lisa skating before the credits was just humiliating.

I'm confused. How does it NOT equal an F? Grading systems, at least in America, go like this:

90+ = A
80-89 = B
70-79 = C
60-69 = D
59 and lower = F.

OR Some places have this:

A 94-100
B 87-93
C 78-86
D 70-77
F 0-69

In both cases a 30% is not only an F...but pretty damn bad. I guess I thought everyone used this, or a similar grading scale. I still don't understand how 30% could be construed as anything other than failing?

This might be my favourite episode of the season... it actually deals with interesting subject matter, which makes me pretty engaged in the plot. The subplot was definitely weaker, but not bad either. I also like how the two plots are tied together in the end. That was a reasonably good explanation for the "spell." Neither of the plots was all that substantive, there was some unnatural dialogue, and I also dislike the Bop It stuff, but it is a pretty good episode overall. As for the "witch trial," that is pretty unrealistic, but there has been worse (basically the entirety of Eternal Moonshine, for example). It also reminds me of the catapult in Homer vs. the 18th Amendment. As long as it is done for a good reason, it doesn't bother me that much. But in a place like Springfield, which is frequently portrayed as incredibly backwards, the practice of Wicca would inevitably lead to an old-fashioned witch trial. 6/10

This is a fairly boring episode. The only mildly amusing scene was the bonk-it, just for being so over-the-top ridiculous. I like how deliberately annoying the joke is. Homer’s story with the rednecks is very bland and while Lisa’s story is more interesting, it still isn’t enough to boost up the episode. The plot was too predictable, it was really obvious that the witches were going to be put on trial, and the solution to the town going blind was kind of lame. Honestly, if the episode had focused more on Wiccan culture, then it probably would have been great. 3/5

I don't often watch new episodes, but I just caught this con channel 4 so I'll say what I thought:

Overall, the plot was quite clever, in that it brought in several secondary characters such as Cletus that I've never been particularly interested in, and used them quite well, branching the characters out and making them more than just a simple tool for catchphrases and the like. The plot with the moonshine was executed quite well, and actually had a purpose which linked the episode together, which you don't see in many of the new episodes.
The subplot with the witches was quite weird, but nothing I didn't expect from a jean era episode. Again, it worked well because it was intrinsically linked to the outcome of the episode.

The whole car game scene at the beginning of the episode dragged on a bit too long and was quite painful to say the least, although I did like the scene where the dad throws the game out his car window and comes back to Bart & Lisa, reminding me of the car scene from 'Bart on the Road'. The bambi reference was brilliant, maybe not everyones cup of tea but it was mildly amusing. The whole court case bit at the end was laboured and not very interesting in the slightest, but ultimately this was a decent episode. A strong B or B+.

Oh and Moe being characterised as a sad little weirdo isn't that funny either, the one thing that bugged me about this episode, why do the modern writing staff feel the need to make out this way?

Originally Posted by postalelf

after extensive research on the topic it appears that there really isn't a difinitive, correct way for a woman to wear a belt

One of my 'favorite' examples of an episode with a potentially-interesting-at-first plot that turns out to be a trademark disjointed first act springboarding into a different plot that's garbage (though at least they try to tie the storylines in together at the end). I love the Homer & Cletus thing and think it's an interesting and not-entirely-unnatural way to give Cletus a little bit of focus, but the Wiccan Lisa thing is boring as hell and kind of a slog to get through.